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Find the technical documentation and find out how to reset the BIOS. You won't be able to do it the way you are trying to. It's a jumper or something on the Motherboard that will need playing with.

Don\'t SYN us.... We\'ll SYN you..... \"A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.\" - Thucydides

Laptops are a real barrel of laughs when it comes to this sort of thing (NOT!!!).

1. You can have three passwords, power up, administrator and hard drive. And that is before you get to the operating system.

2. The first one will be stored on an EEPROM chip and is independent of the CMOS/BIOS, the second is probably in the CMOS/BIOS chipset, and the third is on the HDD where you cannot get at it.

3. F10 suggests that it is a Compaq, (HP bought them a while back).

4. If you can get that far I would guess that the power up password is not set, so resetting the BIOS should work. To do this, disconnect the device from mains, remove the rechargeable battery and then remove the button cell CMOS battery and leave it for 24 hours. That should clear the password. Most laptops don't have motherboard jumpers these days

5. If the hard drive password has also been set, then you are SOL.

Can your friend prove ownership of the machine? if not, you will not get any help from HP.

Please describe what happens exactly when you power up. Like beeps, lights and what appears on the screen.

Also, what exactly is it that you are trying to do? is the machine damaged or something...........there may be other approaches.

Is this really a forensics problem or is it just hardware?

If you cannot do someone any good: don't do them any harm....
As long as you did this to one of these, the least of my little ones............you did it unto Me.
What profiteth a man if he gains the entire World at the expense of his immortal soul?

I agree that flashing the BIOS would work, but I don't see how you could do that if that is the true "admin" password. That one is intended to protect the BIOS settings, mainly against remote workers and their families.

It would be useful to know more about the situation here, like if it is just a data recovery task there should be simpler ways.

If you can prove ownership, then HP will do it for you, but they sure know how to charge for it

We really need to know the history of the machine or what it does on boot, to figure if this is really the BIOS protection password?

If you cannot do someone any good: don't do them any harm....
As long as you did this to one of these, the least of my little ones............you did it unto Me.
What profiteth a man if he gains the entire World at the expense of his immortal soul?